Parisa Mehran

Category Archives: App

Mehrasa (on site) and I (virtually due to three rounds of visa refusal, and I’ll blog the story and my virtual attendance very soon in detail) had two presentations at EUROCALL 2017.

Our first presentation focused on the iterative stages involved in designing and developing our EGAP (English for General Academic Purposes) blended course offered at Osaka University, titled Osaka University Global English Online (OUGEO), which was implemented in the spring semester of 2017 over a period of fifteen weeks. First, the basic Successive Approximation Model (SAM) was introduced as the guiding instructional design model upon which the course had been created. Afterward, the stages of design and development of the blended course were explicated with a focus upon assessing Japanese students’ English language needs and their e-learning readiness, determining the course overall goals and module learning objectives, optimizing course technologies and the availability of technical support, designing the course syllabus, materials, tasks, and activities, organizing team teaching, as well as managing formative and summative evaluation. Additionally, the way in which the iteration process allowed for the discovery of some possibilities and problems at the early phases of the blended course design and development, and the refinements which were made to benefit from the affordable opportunities and to mitigate the difficulties were discussed. The use of Open Educational Resources (OERs) were also expounded in the light of Copy Right issues, and the authoring tools utilized in digitizing the materials alongside their merits and demerits were described. Finally, the Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric and its effectiveness in raising course quality assurance were reviewed.

Our second presentation was about the results of the use of an AR application, called BlippAR, to augment poster carousel tasks in our blended course. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through a usage experience questionnaire, an open-ended feedback form, and observations. The implemented AR application was described, and the overall positive user experience was reported, along with displaying the samples of collaborative student-generated AR work. The rewards and challenges of having students design AR content were also discussed. Moreover, the implications of AR for English language teaching and learning, the pedagogical potentials afforded by this technology, and recommendations for further research were provided.

Inspired by Paul Raine’s Tech Tips blog posts, I’ve decided to list the tech tools which are going to be introduced at EUROCALL 2017 mainly based on the abstract book, because my UK visa was denied three times for illogical reasons and I cannot attend the conference. Fortunately, I’ll take part virtually via Virtually Connecting.

I am very much interested to know:

(1) the “five iPad apps to encourage active learning”, which will be introduced at Pecha Kucha MALL SIG symposium,

(3) the free mobile application that Selwood and Lyddon will ask the visitors of their poster, titled “Back to the Future: Re-mediating Postmillennial Posters in the Digital Age”, to download to have access to some digital data. (I asked Jaime Selwood about the app online on Twitter and added the app to the list)

I’d be grateful if you could help me complete the list.

VEO – Video Enhanced Observation: A technological tool, available for iPads and iPad minis, which aims to promote teachers’ professional development by allowing educators to capture teaching practices for reflection.

Kahoot: A web-based program that allows students to take part in multiple-choice quizzes online through their smartphones, with instant results provided through a teacher-controlled screen displayed on the classroom projector.

Edmodo: An app to share videos and manage the students’ learning process.

MReader: A browser-based version of the Moodle “Reader” module and therefore can be utilized by those not having the Moodle LMS on campus.

Xreading: A Learner Management System (LMS), designed specifically for Extensive Reading (ER), which also offers access to a digital library of graded readers, supplementing the classroom and school libraries of traditional, paper-based graded readers.

Wordiser: A custom-built English language teaching and learning platform.